A mobile is defined as a type of sculpture consisting of carefully equilibrated parts that move, especially in response to air currents. Mobiles have been made for many years. Engineering principles were applied to the art of mobile-making in the early and mid-twentieth century by the American artist Alexander Calder, who is known as the “Father of the Mobile.” One aim of such a sculpture is to depict movement, that is, kinetic rather than static rhythms. In a conventional mobile, display objects of the same or varying shapes are suspended, for example, from a hook attached to a wire. The display objects are attached to a support structure. A hook is positioned at the fulcrum, or balance point, of the support structure such that support structure and the display objects are balanced. The balance point in a mobile is affected by the weight of the objects being displayed and the distance the objects are located from each other along the fulcrum about which the objects are suspended. Mobiles can include sub-assemblies of one or more display objects that are arranged to form a branching, or “tree” mobile. Display objects can be positioned along the balanced display axis in symmetrical or asymmetrical arrangement. Jump rings, or small circle loops, can be added to the structure from which the objects are suspended to add rotational movement of the objects.
However, conventional mobiles that include such connections between support arms and display elements allow displayed items to move clockwise or counterclockwise in less than a full or continuous 360 degree rotation. Display elements of conventional mobiles encounter some degree of torque as the display elements rotate, and often succeed in rotating less than 180 degrees before stopping and turning in the opposite direction. Such mobiles have the disadvantage of preventing full circumferential movement of the displayed items such that a person may not be able to view all sides of the displayed item without manipulating the displayed item or moving to the other side of the mobile to view it.
Conventional mobiles do not include arms, connection elements, and display members that cooperate to provide a self-centering and balanced mobile. In particular, conventional mobiles fail to allow display of combinations of vertically-oriented and horizontally-oriented display members that together are self-centering and balanced.
Thus, there is a need to provide a mobile that is self-centering and balanced and that provides full and continuous 360 degree rotation of displayed items.